HSRC Press | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

‘Moral Eyes is based on interviews with university students in four African countries: Cameroon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa. Each country exemplifies a distinctive axis of discrimination and privilege—religion, language, ethnicity, and race—though with a good deal of intersectional overlap. The authors use the interviews to theorise about deep issues of injustice, history, and restitution. Through an emphasis on the historical dimension of contemporary injustice, they insightfully expand the familiar moral framework of victim-perpetrator-bystander to include ‘inheritors of unjust benefit’ and ‘resisters’. They also reveal significant differences in how historical memory plays out in these four countries. Global North readers, of whom I hope there will be many, will derive great illumination from seeing familiar issues of social justice discussed in a wholly African context, including a diversity unlikely to be familiar to these readers. Moral Eyes is a wonderful book and an excellent contribution to the literature on moral education, social justice, and the moral character of transitions to a more just society.’ –Lawrence Blum, Professor of Philosophy, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education, University of Massachusetts, Boston. Author of High Schools, Race, and America’s Future: What Students Can Teach Us About Morality, Diversity, and Community